Top Chef 5: "Finale Part 2" Recap

Top Chef 5: "Finale Part 2" Recap

Here we are! Okay, so Top Chef 5 didn't exactly keep us on the edge of our culinary seats, but at least we did meet some colorful characters, some of whom even made it all the way to the finale.

So tonight we will learn who will take home the title of Top Chef and the $100,000 prize. Will it be one of the bald rivals, Hosea Rosenberg and Stefan Richter? Or the underdog chef Carla Hall?

As usual in a Top Chef finale, the chefs are going to have some special assistance in the kitchen: some past contestants. After a knife draw, the chefs draw knives to see who picks first. Hosea gets to pick and chooses Richard Blais. Stefan picks second and picks Marcel Vigneron, saying he's a bit of a "tw*t" but notes philosophically, "who isn't?" Carla gets an all-girl team with sous chef Casey Thompson.

The chef's direction for the challenge is simple: cook the best three-course meal of your life. Dessert, often the Achilles heel of the cheftestants, isn't required.

The chefs have a couple hours to prep in the kitchen, and the battling between Hosea and Stefan continues as they bicker over foie gras and caviar. Carla's world is a bit more harmonious, but she might be acting as too good of a partner with her sous chef. She lets herself be talked into a sous vide beef for her meat and potatoes course, even though she's never sous vide'd in her life. She also decides to go with a blue cheese soufflee for her final course when Casey talks her out of the tart she had planned.